Updated on 3 June 2025
CULTCARE - Inclusive cultural infrastructures for mental health, learning, and autonomy
About
CULTCARE explores how participatory and immersive engagement with digital cultural heritage can support mental well-being, skill development, and the autonomy of persons with disabilities. The project builds on the premise that cultural spaces—whether physical or digital—play a vital, yet under-recognised, role in lifelong learning, emotional health, and community belonging.
Working with memory institutions, inclusive design experts, disability advocacy groups, and digital creators across Europe, the project pilots adaptive learning environments and accessible cultural formats (e.g. multisensory archives, AI-supported personalisation, XR-based co-creation) tailored to diverse needs. It centres people with lived experience as co-researchers and co-creators.
Key activities:
Evaluating how digital cultural tools affect key competences and well-being in educational and non-formal settings
Designing inclusive, neurodivergent-friendly XR experiences based on audiovisual heritage collections
Testing participatory archiving and storytelling as methods to foster agency among people with disabilities
Establishing good practices for culturally embedded, care-oriented use of AI and digital media in learning and public service design
Expected outcomes:
Cross-sector framework linking digital heritage to mental health, inclusive education, and cultural rights
Evidence-based recommendations for cultural and educational institutions to support autonomy and emotional resilience
FAIR and open-source co-creation tools for inclusive digital storytelling
Contributions to policy on accessible and equitable digital cultural services in Europe
Stage
- Ideation - identifying the project idea
Topic
- EIT CC Calls
- HEU Partnership: Resilient Cultural Heritage
- HEU Partnership: Virtual Worlds
- TMO Synergy Grants
- Other relevant EU initiatives
- Regional Perspective: Interregional Innovation Investments (I3-Instrument)
- Cultural Heritage in the Digital Europe Program
Call
- TRANSFO-05: Improving fairness in the economy through a better understanding of undeclared and underdeclared work
- TRANSFO-06: Evaluation and use of evidence in education policy and practice
- TRANSFO-07: Impact of the learning environment and the use of digital tools in everyday life on key skills and competence development
- TRANSFO-08: Improving mental health outcomes for people in education, training and work
- TRANSFO-09: Good practices for increased autonomy of persons with disabilities, including physical, mental, intellectual and sensory disabilities
- TRANSFO-10: Intergenerational fairness in the context of demographic change in the EU
Organisation
Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision
Cultural institution (galleries, libraries, archives, museums)
Hilversum, Netherlands
Similar opportunities
Project cooperation
Access to audiovisual heritage for reuse, research and social impact
- EIT CC Calls
- TMO Synergy Grants
- Completing the consortia
- Consortium seeks Partners
- Other relevant EU initiatives
- HEU Partnership: Virtual Worlds
- Design - setting the project scope
- Ideation - identifying the project idea
- Drafting - writing the project proposal
- HEU Partnership: Resilient Cultural Heritage
- Partner seeks Consortium (Expertise offered)
- Cultural Heritage in the Digital Europe Program
- HERITAGE-05: Evolution of culture in a virtualising world
- DEMOCRACY-08: Economic inequalities and their impact on democracy
- DEMOCRACY-12: Community of democracy practitioners and researchers
- DEMOCRACY-07: The autocratic appeal: nature, drivers and strategies
- DEMOCRACY-02: Fostering the consolidation of European science diplomacy
- HERITAGE-09: Impacts of culture and the arts on health and well-being
- Regional Perspective: Interregional Innovation Investments (I3-Instrument)
- TRANSFO-06: Evaluation and use of evidence in education policy and practice
- HERITAGE-01: Co-funded European partnership for Resilient Cultural Heritage
- HERITAGE-04: Leveraging artificial intelligence for creativitydriven innovation
- DEMOCRACY-03: Preparing the EU for future enlargement: challenges and opportunities
- DEMOCRACY-11: Independence of the judiciary as an aspect of rule of law compliance
- TRANSFO-01: Tackling gender-based violence in different social and economic spheres
- HERITAGE-06: Europe as a global powerhouse of design for sustainable competitiveness
- TRANSFO-10: Intergenerational fairness in the context of demographic change in the EU
- TRANSFO-08: Improving mental health outcomes for people in education, training and work
- DEMOCRACY-04: Open strategic autonomy, economic and research security in EU foreign policy
- HERITAGE-03: A European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage – Innovative use cases
- TRANSFO-03: Working time reduction: barriers, challenges, benefits and policy implications
- TRANSFO-11: Migration and climate change: building resilience and enhancing sustainability
- DEMOCRACY-05: Countering and preventing radicalisation, extremism, hate speech and polarisation
- DEMOCRACY-09: Fighting against disinformation while ensuring the right to freedom of expression
- HERITAGE-02- two-stage: Innovative approaches to intangible cultural heritage for societal resilience
- DEMOCRACY-06: Towards a European research hub on contemporary antisemitism and Jewish life and culture
- TRANSFO-05: Improving fairness in the economy through a better understanding of undeclared and underdeclared work
- TRANSFO-02: Historical and regional analyses of industrial transitions and their lessons for ensuring a fair green transition
- DEMOCRACY-01: Advisory support and network to counter disinformation and foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI)
- TRANSFO-07: Impact of the learning environment and the use of digital tools in everyday life on key skills and competence development
- HERITAGE-07: Cultural Strategies for Peace: culture and creativity as catalysts for conflict prevention and post-conflict reconciliation
- TRANSFO-04-two stage: Gender differences in career trajectories of parents and their implications for gender equality and family well-being
- TRANSFO-09: Good practices for increased autonomy of persons with disabilities, including physical, mental, intellectual and sensory disabilities
- DEMOCRACY-10: The role of civic and citizenship education for strengthening civic and democratic participation and support for common European values
- HERITAGE-08: Bridging historical past and future potential through conservation, preservation, and adaptive use of Europe’s contentious and dissonant heritage
Johan Oomen
Research agenda at Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Project cooperation
paINTeraction - open to partnership
- Other relevant EU initiatives
- HEU Partnership: Resilient Cultural Heritage
- Cultural Heritage in the Digital Europe Program
- HERITAGE-09: Impacts of culture and the arts on health and well-being
- HERITAGE-04: Leveraging artificial intelligence for creativitydriven innovation
- TRANSFO-08: Improving mental health outcomes for people in education, training and work
- TRANSFO-07: Impact of the learning environment and the use of digital tools in everyday life on key skills and competence development
- TRANSFO-09: Good practices for increased autonomy of persons with disabilities, including physical, mental, intellectual and sensory disabilities
Francesco Fermanelli
Coordinator at SCREEN TO SOUL
Perugia, Italy
Project cooperation
Expertise for creating digital communities of practice
- EIT CC Calls
- Completing the consortia
- Other relevant EU initiatives
- HEU Partnership: Virtual Worlds
- Design - setting the project scope
- Ideation - identifying the project idea
- Drafting - writing the project proposal
- HEU Partnership: Resilient Cultural Heritage
- Partner seeks Consortium (Expertise offered)
- Cultural Heritage in the Digital Europe Program
- HERITAGE-05: Evolution of culture in a virtualising world
- DEMOCRACY-08: Economic inequalities and their impact on democracy
- DEMOCRACY-12: Community of democracy practitioners and researchers
- DEMOCRACY-07: The autocratic appeal: nature, drivers and strategies
- DEMOCRACY-02: Fostering the consolidation of European science diplomacy
- HERITAGE-09: Impacts of culture and the arts on health and well-being
- Regional Perspective: Interregional Innovation Investments (I3-Instrument)
- TRANSFO-06: Evaluation and use of evidence in education policy and practice
- HERITAGE-01: Co-funded European partnership for Resilient Cultural Heritage
- HERITAGE-04: Leveraging artificial intelligence for creativitydriven innovation
- DEMOCRACY-03: Preparing the EU for future enlargement: challenges and opportunities
- DEMOCRACY-11: Independence of the judiciary as an aspect of rule of law compliance
- TRANSFO-01: Tackling gender-based violence in different social and economic spheres
- HERITAGE-06: Europe as a global powerhouse of design for sustainable competitiveness
- TRANSFO-10: Intergenerational fairness in the context of demographic change in the EU
- TRANSFO-08: Improving mental health outcomes for people in education, training and work
- DEMOCRACY-04: Open strategic autonomy, economic and research security in EU foreign policy
- HERITAGE-03: A European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage – Innovative use cases
- TRANSFO-03: Working time reduction: barriers, challenges, benefits and policy implications
- TRANSFO-11: Migration and climate change: building resilience and enhancing sustainability
- DEMOCRACY-05: Countering and preventing radicalisation, extremism, hate speech and polarisation
- DEMOCRACY-09: Fighting against disinformation while ensuring the right to freedom of expression
- HERITAGE-02- two-stage: Innovative approaches to intangible cultural heritage for societal resilience
- DEMOCRACY-06: Towards a European research hub on contemporary antisemitism and Jewish life and culture
- TRANSFO-05: Improving fairness in the economy through a better understanding of undeclared and underdeclared work
- TRANSFO-02: Historical and regional analyses of industrial transitions and their lessons for ensuring a fair green transition
- DEMOCRACY-01: Advisory support and network to counter disinformation and foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI)
- TRANSFO-07: Impact of the learning environment and the use of digital tools in everyday life on key skills and competence development
- HERITAGE-07: Cultural Strategies for Peace: culture and creativity as catalysts for conflict prevention and post-conflict reconciliation
- TRANSFO-04-two stage: Gender differences in career trajectories of parents and their implications for gender equality and family well-being
- TRANSFO-09: Good practices for increased autonomy of persons with disabilities, including physical, mental, intellectual and sensory disabilities
- DEMOCRACY-10: The role of civic and citizenship education for strengthening civic and democratic participation and support for common European values
- HERITAGE-08: Bridging historical past and future potential through conservation, preservation, and adaptive use of Europe’s contentious and dissonant heritage
Alexandru Stan
Head of R&D at IN2 Digital Innovations GmbH
Lindau, Germany